Enter the contest today by nominating a student or teacher that has excelled in the field of math education.  This “excellence” can come in any form – either through achievement, dedication, innovation/creativity, or by setting an inspirational example to others.  Are you the student or teacher Get Schooled is looking for? Or do you know someone that fits the bill?

The winners of the Ring the Bell Contest will receive a number of awesome prizes including a trip to New York City for a once in a lifetime chance to ring the NYSE bell.

From the Get Schooled website:

At the beginning of this year President Obama pledged to improve American students’ performance in math and science. “Make no mistake: Our future is on the line,” he said. “The nation that out-educates us today is going to out-compete us tomorrow.” Each day the importance of educating the American People only grows. With a struggling economy and jobs increasingly moving overseas–improving our children’s math and science education is crucial to maintaining our competitive role in the world economy.

In recognition of the vital importance of math education to the future of our country’s workforce, Get Schooled and the New York Stock Exchange have teamed up to reward a student and teacher that are outstanding in the realm of math education.  On April 28^th as part of Financial Literacy Month, one amazing math teacher and one exceptional math student will get the chance to ring the bell to open trading on the New York Stock Exchange. They will be accompanied by Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman and a Get Schooled Celebrity Ambassador.

Visit the contest page now, sign up & get nominating.

The meme team loves finding and sharing different variations of viral videos – from impressive viral video marketing campaigns to random dancing baby videos.  Last month we featured another impressive viral video from the band OK Go. The video had some very well planned production, and wasn’t the fist viral video produced by the band, so their existing fan base was waiting for their next hit.

But what about the videos the come from nowhere with no pre-existing followers? How do those videos gain the significant title  ‘Viral Video’. Before watching this week’s pick for viral video of the week, here are some stats:

Posted for 5 Months

819,146 Views
6,864 New Shares
147 blog posts
1,083 tweets
13,963 Facebook shares
3 duplicate videos
1,120 comments

The numbers say this is undoubtedly a viral video, but why? What is it about this video that makes us want to share it and watch it over and over again? In your opinion what makes a viral video? What is it about this week’s Viral Video of the Week that is so catchy? Is it just because its cute? Or is it the music that makes the video clip?

You tell us while we watch it again.

PBS engaged memelabs to challenge filmmakers across the United States to be creative, showcase their talent and explain in 30 seconds what surprised them the most about discovering PBS online?

Check out the PBS website for inspiration and the information below to get started!

What Do I Win?

The Grand Prize winner will win a trip to Austin, TX to see insider-only previews of upcoming PBS programs and hear behind-the-scenes plans from PBS executives.

They’ll also receive a limited edition PBS-Designed flip camera and a PBS Gift Package.

The trip to Austin includes:

– 1 day attendance at the PBS annual meeting;

– coffee with a PBS programming executive;

– a tour of PBS station KLRU and the Austin City Limits set;

– round-trip airfare (within the United States);

– transportation to and from the airport to a hotel;

– two (2) nights in a hotel; and

– meals and pocket money to cover incidentals.

(Estimated prize value $3,000.00)

Top 10 Tips for Making Your Video

1. Your video must show something surprising about PBS on the web.

2. Be innovative, clever, engaging or cheeky.

3. Your video must be 30 seconds in length, including a 5-second PBS video logo resolve. Click the link to view the video resolve, or right click to save the file to your computer: (Right click to download the PBS video logo)

4. Your video must be under 32MB in size.

5. Video must be received by 11:59:59 p.m. EST April 18th. Register, login and click UPLOAD MEDIA from the menu bar to submit your video.

6. You can submit up to three entries.

7. You must live in the United States to be eligible.

8. You must be at least 18 to participate.

9. Check out the HOME short video for ideas and guidance before you get started.

10. Have Fun!

Whether you attended SXSW this year and LOVED IT, or are ridiculously jealous of those who did go – now’s your chance to giddy up.

From the internet meme vault, “Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama” is sure to be just the right kick-off to your St. Patties festivities.  A staff favourite,  @d1337 (as well as others in the @memelabs office) perform the impersonation very well.  In fact, “Where da gold at?” was our unofficial slogan during the Vancouver, Olympics.

Viral Video stats (from YouTube):
- 13,224,500 views
- 19,644 ratings
- Adding comments has been disabled for this video
- First referral from – youshouldhaveseenthis.com
- Uploaded by: botmib
- Date: March 17, 2006
- Description: Leprechaun in Crichton.

A monument to the viral nature of this video is the “I want the gold” remix, which can be seen here.

What a sweep! Recently at the Georgie Awards, ParkLane was recognized for their work, taking home five awards. A further congratulations to Braun Allison for spearheading The BLOCK‘s marketing initiative, which won 2009 Marketing Campaign of the Year, a campaign that memelabs was a part of as host of The BLOCK’s photo contest.

We’re pleased to see Braun Allison recognized for their fantastic creative and innovative marketing campaigns. Memelabs was happy to work with them for The BLOCK campaign, supplying the photo contesting platform, which helped draw attention to the development, elicited a fantastic response from The BLOCK’s community, and contributed to an award winning marketing campaign that included print ads and a Tagga SMS campaign.

Total awards taken home by ParkLane:

2009 Marketing Campaign of the Year – The BLOCK
2009 Best Logo – The BLOCK
2009 Best Advertising Campaign – The BLOCK
2009 Best Single Family Detached Home under 2,000 sq. ft – spec – Bedford Landing
2009 Best Single Family Detached Home 2,000 – 2,999 sq. ft. – spec – Southport

About the awards:
The Georgie Awards®, owned by the Canadian Home Builders’ Association of British Columbia (CHBA BC), is Canada’s premier housing awards program that highlights and celebrates excellence in home building.  A Georgie Award is recognized as an industry stamp of quality. Award entries are at a record high, and the calibre of projects is a testament to the talents and efforts of CHBA BC members.

With this year’s Viralocity campaign, Doritos is looking to build on the success of last year’s Doritos Guru campaign, as it goes after every marketing team’s wet dream: going viral. To accomplish this, Doritos has wisely chosen to continue using a video contest as the driving force behind their campaign. Not only that, but it’s also included tips & tricks, helping participants to achieve their dreams of going viral and winning earning $10,000.

Our favourite? What can we say, we’re a sucker for clever stop motions, and stop-motions with Godzilla, karate, & pirates? Sold. (Also, check out this awesome stop-motion of our lobby receiving a few artistic touches)

Intrigued? Check out some of our other stop-motion favourites:

DEADLINE featuring every office’s ‘can’t live without’ stationary: post-its. These folks were also clever enough to create a ‘Making Of‘ video

T-shirt Wars – 222 tshirts!!

Fascinated? Contact us and lets talk about how to make video contests work for your company, cause or brand.

Bashful Bladder:  Movember Foundation

Sponsor Me Spring: Halloween 09

Lively Pearls: The Gap

Run like a Canuck: Chip’s Not Dead Yet memorial mile

Best Decision I ever made: Cellular South

Having already received 1,379,047 views and counting, OK Go’s This Too Shall Pass is our Viral Video of the week.

Some stats on the viral sharing of this video:

• 1,379,047 views
• 1 duplicate video
• 1,141 blog posts
• 3,098 comments
• 4,636 tweets

This video is off to a good start, following the band’s video for “Here It Goes Again,” which won a Grammy Award for “Best Short-Form Music Video” in 2007.  You can check out all their amazing music videos on YouTube.

Check out this meme-licious list compiled by Greg Rutter (his second, btw).  This list is pure gold, listing all the clips that make watching hours of online video so, so worth it.

You’ll notice that individuals aren’t the only ones contributing viral videos to the internet, but brands are also taking flint to stone, igniting memes across the interweb in an attempt to gain notoriety amongst their advocates online. The growth of online video marketing can be seen particularly by the number of brands who have a YouTube channel. For example, fifty-nine percent of U.S. companies in the Fortune Global 100 have YouTube channels compared with 52% in Europe, 35% in Asia-Pacific and 33% in Latin America.

Our staff favourites from Rutter’s list include both user generated content as well as brand advertising. We want to know which ones are your favourite and if you have one that isn’t listed.

Staff favourites include:

06) Autotune The News
– @d1337
30) Otter’s Holding Hands
– @kateleg
52) Slap Chop Rap
– @quikness
Not included) Old Spice Commercial: The man your man could smell like
– @6oz

If you’d like to know which others are worth watching, or how memelabs can help your business with video marketing contact us at info@memelabs.com.

No other media company does more to provide an independent voice in today’s media marketplace, and now, PBS is hosting a video contest to give YOU a voice. With the “YOUR PBS Video Contest,” PBS wants to know what has been the most surprising thing you’ve found at PBS.org? Was it the breadth of web content on PBS.org or a conversation you struck up through PBS’s Twitter or Facebook areas? Have you been floored by what you can do and discover with PBS on iTunes or elsewhere on the Web?  Be clever, engaging and don’t shy away from being innovative or cheeky!

What are participants shooting for? The Grand Prize winner will receive a trip to Austin, TX to see insider-only previews of upcoming PBS programs and hear behind-the-scenes plans from PBS executives, among other exciting treats, and possibly have his or her video air on PBS! Five contest runners-up will receive a limited edition PBS-designed Flip camera and PBS Gift Package, while one participant will receive the People’s Choice award: a PBS prize pack valued at an estimated $750. Contest open to US residents only.

Check out the PBS video contest and watch the introductory video to see how PBS wants you to learn more, share more, and be more.